The Sundareswarar Swamy Temple is located in Kovur,
Chennai suburb. The temple is around 1 km away from the Kovur bus stand.
Kovur is a small town located in Chennai suburb between Porur and
Kundrathur.

The Shrine

The
Stone Plates reveals that the temple was built by Sundara Chozhan
during 965 BC. The Lord here is named as Sundareswarar (a)
Thirumaneeswarar. The Ambal is Soundrambika (a) Soundaryanayaki. The
shrine proper is in the gajaprishta style, resembling the Tiruvottriyur
temple. This therefore indicates that it was built in Pallava times.
Both Swami and Ambal have their sanctums within the same super
structure. Lord Sundareswarar faces east and is a fairly large lingam.
There are icons for Kalyana Sundareswara with consort, Somaskanda, the
Goddess Saundaryanayaki, Subrahmanya with Valli and Devasena, Nataraja
with Sivakami and Manikkavachakar, and the arupattu moovars. In
addition, the temple also houses an utsava moorti of Vishnu with
Sreedevi and Bhoodevi. This moorti, titled Karunakara Perumal, is
obviously of a sound vintage though the recess in which it is housed is
modern and shows that the Perumal has been brought in here in relatively
recent times.

Legend

According
to legend, when Goddess Kamakshi did penance in the nearby Mangadu, the
entire world trembled, as the heat that emerged was unbearable for all
living beings. Then Goddess Mahalakshmi took the form of the celestial
cow, Kamadhenu, and pacified Kamakshi. As a result, the intensity of the
heat got reduced and the entire world heaved a sigh of relief. To add
to this Lord Shiva showed the real swaroopam in the Linga along with
Parvathi and came to be known as ‘Thirumeneeswarar’. The temple has a
seven-tier Rajagopuram on the southern entrance and the sanctum
sanctorum, like in many Shiva temples, is in "Gajabrushta" (elephant's
back) form. As Mahalakshmi appeared here as a cow the place came to be
known as Kovoor ("Ko" in Sanskrit means cow).

The holy water source is Sivaganga Theertham. Apart from the main
shrines for the Lord and His Consort, there are shrines for Vinayaka,
Subramanya, Dakshinamoorthy, Lingodbhavar, Brahma, Chandikeswarar,
Durgai and Mahavishnu, known as Karunakara Perumal along with His
Consorts. Pooja is offered five times in the temple, famous for its
"Thiruvembavai" festival and the "Arudhra" festival in the Tamil month
of Margazhi. Skanda Sashti Soora Samharam and Sivarathri festivals are
also celebrated in the temple, which is flocked by thousands of devotees
during the Thirukkalyanam Festival held on Vaikasi Visakam day. The
presiding deities as well as the Panchamurthis will be taken in
procession on that day.

The main deity is Sri Sundareswarar with Goddess Soundarambihai. This is
being considered as the Budhan (Mercury) Sthalam for the Navagraha
worship. The entrance is picturesque with an array of houses and tall
Asoka Trees on either side. This temple has the unique Maha Vilvam as its Sthala Vruksham which has bunch of 27 leaves in one single stalk!!!.
Saint Thyagaraja’s Pancha Rathna Keerthanas on Lord Rama is very
popular and he rarely sang in praise of other Gods. This is the place
where he sang the Panchartana keerthanas on Shiva and is called Kovur
Pancharathnam.